TuP-04
ANALYSIS OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS IN EUCALYPTUS LEAVES
Bart M. Eschlera, Noel W. Daviesb & Bill Foleyc
a Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University
b Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania
c Division of Botany & Zoology, Australian National University
Diformyl phloroglucinol (DFP) compounds, as represented in (1), have shown diverse bioactivity including antifouling and antibacterial activity. Of interest to this work is their antifeedant activity toward mammals and insects. This class of compounds can be divided into several subclasses according to the R,R' group it contains, as shown below.
Little work has been reported in the area of quantifying the amount of these compounds in Eucalyptus leaves. This paper reports work to date in this area using a combination of analytical methods, with a number of mass spectrometric techniques playing a key role in both identification and determination of relative levels of individual compounds. In addition to GC-MS analyses, direct probe spectra of crude extracts at high mass resolution were employed to measure ions diagnostic for the DFP nucleus. MS/MS was also used to help determine the population of DFP parent ions. Problems with thermal degradation during analysis of some DFPs were identified.